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Briefing for Creation and Customization Newbies

Table of Contents:
Post 1: Thats this one! Before your first post in C&C information, as well as a short guide on what a mod is and how to accomplish it.Post 2: Guide to graphics and palettes; a vast majority of graphics issues have to do with palettes, so skim this if you have any problems with magenta, black, or translucence in custom graphics.Post 3: Links and Common Questions/Newbie Questions/Modding Questions. Useful for everyone, I'm sure!Post 9: My personal library of stuff I've done, for those interested.Post 10: A Reference Card on Well-Known Mods and Scenarios.

Intended primarily as a brief for those who have never made a scenario or mod on their own, secondarily intended as a brief FAQ reference for common main-board questions. Avoid posting responses here if possible, as most things should be answered. Just don't clutter the thread, basically. If you have a question about something more specific, the answer is probably somewhere else on this sub-forum. Do feel free to post recommendations for additions.
But mostly this is a place for me to link to when someone asks a question that I've seen answered X zillion times.

Firstly and Foremostly: Do NOT create a new post in sub-forums unless you have a completed file, or, in the case of the Tutorials section, a completed guide. All questions go directly in the Civ3 - Creation & Customization forum; If you're not sure which one that is, check the top of your screen, with the linked list structure. It should ONLY say "Civilization Fanatics' Forums > CIVILIZATION III > Civ3 - Creation & Customization". If it does, scroll down past the sub-forum list and wham, you are in the main forum. If you STILL can't figure that out, just click this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46Important Addendum: Always, Always, Always check the date of the last post. As a general rule of thumb, avoid bumping threads 6 months or older unless you have something constructive to add. The 6 months figure is something I pulled out of thin air, I'm sure many people would likely say you should avoid bumping anything older than 2 months.

Second: You are going to need to edit .pcx files. Every last piece of static in-game art is a .pcx file, from buildings to terrain. I am not implying that you will have to make your own art; but you WILL need to do cutting and pasting if you want any set of graphics besides the one seen in the normal, epic game. Unfortunately, most programs don't know what the heck a .pcx file is!

What Program to use for .PCX editing?
I strongly recommend The GIMP , because it is extensively detailed and free. Other programs to consider are Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. For all purposes, I will be providing parts of this guide from a GIMP perspective.

From here on out, this guide is primarily intended for an up-to-date version of Civ 3 Conquests; older guides for Vanilla civ or PTW can be found in this very forum, but you may still find applicable stuff in this post.
For those of you who do NOT have Conquests, you would probably do best going here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=9337

1. I would like to create a Mod or Scenario. Where do I start?
First: Pick a name. For my example, the name I'll use for a scenario/mod will be "The Spanish Inquisition". Didn't expect that, now did you?

2. Open Civ3ConquestsEdit. If you have difficulty finding it, its in the Conquests folder. In the file menu of Civ3Conquests Edit (hereafter referred to as "CivEdit"), choose "Save as..." and enter your title, SpanishInquisition.biq in this case; make sure you save it in the Conquests/Scenarios/ directory, whether it is a mod or scenario.

3. I want to have custom rules, custom players, or a custom map. How?
Before I go further, here are the ramifications of those three customizations.
-Custom Rules: This means you will be able to edit the underbelly of the game. If you want to add or edit any units, buildings, civs, governments, you need this.
-Custom Map: This is fairly self-explanatory. If you want a map with or without preplaced cities and units, you need this.
*OH NO CITY AND UNIT BUTTONS ARE GREYED OUT!*
...This is a very common question. If you want to add cities or units, press the space bar to select a civ...you can now add cities or units to your custom map.
-Custom Players: This allows you to determine extra player information, like which civs can play, which era they start in, and if they get any extra units at start beyond what the game is otherwise capable of, as well as locked alliances. (Individual Player information is in the menu: Scenario -> Scenario Properties, and then the Players tab. Here you can set individual civs, starting gov't, et cetera)
You should be able to determine which of those you need for your scenario or mod; if you just want a random-map-generating mod, you only have to mess with rules. If you only want a map, only mess with map. If you want an Earth Scenario with preplaced units or cities which uses C3C's default rules, you only need to mess with custom map and players.
For The Spanish Inquisition, I'll say we need all three. Go to the Scenario menu, and note the last three items, cleverly labelled Custom Rules, Custom Map, and Custom Players. These are checkbox items, so click on whichever ones you need and they will be "checked", or activated. Note that checking Custom Rules produces a small warning pop-up, just click ok.

4. (If you are using only the default Civ3 rules, art, and text setup, then you already know enough, and don't need to read further. Check post 3 for links and tips) Go ahead and save your .biq and minimize CivEdit. At this point, it would be wise to set up your scenario/mod directory in the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. First, go to the Civ3/Conquests/Scenarios folder. Make a new folder, title it however you like. For simplicity, its generally best just to use a standard name, so, again, for my example I'd just call it "Spanish Inquisition". Now, inside that folder, create two seperate folders, "Art" and "Text".
Art has a number of folders, with a lot of different content. What you will most likely be using it for is Civilopedia Icons, Buildings_Large.pcx, Buildings_Small.pcx, Units_32.pcx, Unit graphics, and Leaderhead graphics. Civilopedia Icons are generally in the format NAMELarge.pcx and NAMESmall.pcx, or something similar. Buildings_Large and Buildings_Small are the two files used for the Building Queue graphics in the City Screen. Units_32 is also used for the Building Queue graphics, but for the units rather than the buildings. Units each get their OWN folder, with all the animations and sounds therein. I'll talk about that later.
For text, the easiest first step is just to go into Conquests' Text folder (Civ3/Conquests/Text/), copy all the files, and paste them in your scenario's Text folder. Now you can edit your own text files based on default C3C's; this will make things very easy for you. Each of the files has a different significance, and here are the biggies:
-Pediaicons.txt is used by the game and CivEdit to FIND ALL IN-GAME GRAPHICS, with a scant few exceptions. I capitalize that because graphics do not magically appear in the editor or in the game if you paste them in your folder. You MUST tell the game and CivEdit where to look for everything, and you must do it by name.
-Civilopedia.txt is used for the text in Civilopedia entries. It details the language and markups you can use inside the file, isn't that nice?
-Script.txt and Labels.txt are used for a wide variety of things; generally speaking, if text pops up in the game, appears in a popup, is seen in a menu, or doesn't fit in the other 3 text files listed, this is where to look.
-Diplomacy.txt is used for Diplomacy Text. Go figure. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=15270

Now comes the tricky part: You have to add any and all graphics, text, CivEdit information, and whatever else you want into your .biq and scenario folder. A brief on graphics and the GIMP will appear in post 2, and a brief on other issues and frequent questions (as well as some in-forum links) shall be in post 3.

All original graphics are the in the ART folder of Civ3 and Conquests (and PTW if you have that too). If you had difficulty finding the TEXT folder, you will have the same problems finding the ART folder. If, like most Civ3 players, you have used a computer for more than a couple hours total in your life, you won't have any difficulty finding either.
One of the best things to do here is just explore to see how things are set up and named. When you create custom graphics for a scenario or mod, you will have to put an ART folder in your scenario folder and set it up EXACTLY like the original's file structure, although you don't need to put every last file in there, as Civ3 will use the default art if you don't account for it in your mod.
EXAMPLE: You want to make custom terrain, but thats all.
1. Make your scenario folder in "SCENARIOS" under conquest. I outlined this in post 1. Go back if you missed it. We'll call the folder TERRAINMOD.
2. Inside this folder, put a folder named Art, and inside that, put a folder named Terrain. Note that this is exactly how regular Civ3's folders are set up.
3. Put your terrain in that folder; it should consist of 1 to several dozen .pcx files with a variety of names. There are NOT any sub-folders in your Terrain folder, so if you have one, you screwed up.
4. Now make a new .biq in Conquests/Scenarios, name it whatever you want, and open Scenario->Scenario Properties (or hit alt-enter). See that text box that says Scenario Search Folders? Type JUST the name of your scenario folder in there. In this case, its TERRAINMOD.
5. To go briefly off on a tangent, if you wanted to use graphics from 2 different scenario folders in the same scenario without needing copies, you would put the name of the first scenario's folder, a semicolon, a space, and then the name of the second scenario's folder.

Most likely, you will want to familiarize yourself with the structure of the following ART folders:
-Terrain
-Units (check the third post for a link on how to add units)
-Civilopedia (This is where all those small and large pedia icons are stored)
-Advisors (this is where the tech backgrounds are stored)
-Cities (if you want custom graphics for overland map cities)
-Leaderheads (this is where .PCX files for leaderheads are kept)
-Flics (this is where the ANIMATED leaderheads are kept)
Also in the Art folder are two important .PCX files which don't have their own folder, Resources and Resources_Shadows.pcx

1. OMG HELP COLORS ARE SCREWED UP IN-GAME?
All .PCX files must be indexed. That means they need a palette. In civ's case, that means they need a 256 color palette with the last two entries being transparent.
What's a palette, you say? Well, if you got the GIMP, go ahead and use it to open a Civ3 .pcx file. Now go to Dialogs -> Indexed Palette. THAT, my friend, is a palette. The last two colors are unique, and in game, they are transparent.
A quick indexing tutorial: (Important: This is designed for the GIMP. If you are using another program, this tutorial will be of little or no help.)
Open up a Civ3 .pcx file. How about...Resources.pcx? Now, since it is a civ file, its already indexed. But this is an indexing tutorial, so we have to turn it back to TRUE COLOR. Do this by going to Image -> Mode -> RGB. Poof! It is now in True Color format, and a lot of editing options are opened up to you, including Blurring, Burning, etc. etc. Don't mess with those, though, not for this tutorial. Now...go back to the same menu...Image -> Mode -> Indexed. Now you have an interesting little dialog, don't you? Use that top option that says "Generate optimum palette". That option is your friend. Change the number of colors to 254, because we are going to add the last two transparent colors in manually. Open up the Indexed Palette, which I already explained how to do, and click on the last entry once. The entry number will be 253...thats because the first entry is 0. For any Civ3 .pcx, you want that last number to be 255, because that means you have 256 colors total. Right? Right. Now, find the "Plus Sign" button, because that is what adds entries to your indexed palette. Adding entries doesn't change the existing image, but lets you use the added entries as colors; keep in mind that an indexed image can ONLY use colors in its palette. So, you must now add entries until the last one is numbered "255". Do so. Now, double click on that last entry, and change the color to Magenta...ff00ff...if it isn't already. We did this because the BACKGROUND of the image is going to be Magenta, and we want that transparent. Now, use the EYEDROPPER tool to click on the grid lines you see in between the resource pictures...the color you get will be the color you want for your SECOND-TO-LAST palette entry, number 254. Double click on entry 254, and change it to the color code of the grid lines. Now, there is one last thing you must do. Make sure that NEITHER of the last 2 entries appears anywhere else on your palette...unfortunately, you will most certainly find that at least 2 and possibly more entries in your palette are indeed identical to your last two entries; this is because when we converted the image back into indexed form, we "lost" 2 colors. This is not a big problem...double click that entry, and change it to a completely different color, it doesn't matter which one. OH NO! THE IMAGE GOT MESSED UP! Don't worry. Just find the "Select by color" tool, and select your background color again...now, change the 'foreground color' to Magenta (do this in the main GIMP control panel), then go back to your resource.pcx window, and go to Edit -> Fill with FG color. Follow the same procedure for the entry which corresponds to your Grid Lines; for any other 'missing' colors which were filled in with Magenta when you added them, you can simply change the color to whatever you want, and forget about it, as it should not change the image (it didn't correspond to any areas of the image, you see, but was a 'blank' entry).
Hooray! You have successfully lowered the quality of your resources.pcx by 2 colors. Don't save it.
The purpose of the tutorial wasn't to actually accomplish anything, but rather to show how to deal with Palette problems. You should now be equipped to take on any palette irregularities!

2....be continued. Har har har.
Most file-specific graphics questions should be answered in the links on post 3.

Newbie Questions:
*OH NO CITY AND UNIT BUTTONS ARE GREYED OUT!*
This is a very common question. If you want to add cities or units, press the space bar to select a civ...you can now add cities or units to your custom map.

*SCREENSHOTS HELP*
There are screenshot utilities in the Utilities forum.
Also, Keyboards have a Prt Scrn button on them. Use it, and then open MSPaint and Edit -> Paste.
Make sure you save your screenshots in .jpg format.
Use the Manage Attachments to post a SINGLE file for a preview, or use the Upload File link at the bottom of the forum window in combination with a link to that file.

*WHAT IS DIFFERENCE B/W MOD AND SCENARIO?*
A Mod changes rules, often dramatically, and usually has its own set of graphics. Mods are often intended to be played on a random map, although many use preset maps or scenarios as a fundamental part of their structure.

A Scenario does not necessarily change rules or graphics, but often does. It has no random map capacity, and almost invariably has one or more map(s) with pre-placed units and cities.

*HEY, THE MODERATORS...*
*HEY I HAVE QUESTION NOT RELATED TO CREATION/CUSTOMIZATION...*
*HEY IS THIS RIGHT FORUM FOR...*
*EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE SPAM...*
*MISLEADING TITLE: BLAH BLAH...*
*CAN YOU GUYS SEND ME ORIGINAL FILE FOR...*
No. Stop right there. Read the Forum Rules.

*SOMEBODY POSTED SOMETHING MEAN AND I WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND TO THEM*
*SOMEBODY POSTED SOMETHING OFF-TOPIC AND I WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND TO THEM*
No. Bad modder. There are 4 reasonable options in such a case. A)Just ignore them. B)Ask them nicely to stop, and perhaps direct them to the Forum Rules C)Start a new thread (in an APPROPRIATE forum) and direct the off-topic conversation there D)Just report the post as bad, or PM a mod.
Do NOT keep talking about something off-topic or inflammatory, do NOT toss insults around, and if you are the one doing the off-topicing or flaming, don't get upset when someone else does any of the above, good or bad, to you.
This stuff is largely outlined in the forum rules (and common sense...) but I've put it here just to clarify.

*HEY I SEE A MOD UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND I AM GOING TO ASK WHEN IT WILL BE OUT*
No. No, no. No. Gaming companies like Firaxis are hesitant to announce release dates, and its their job. Modders don't give dates, possibly because its just a hobby. Don't ask when it will be done, don't ask how long until its done, don't whine about it not being done. It will be finished when the modder feels enough work has gone into it, and in some cases they'll even be willing to give you an estimate of when it will be done (in the current environ, the most common release date modders give is "before Civ IV", but that will obviously change the closer that game gets).

*BLARGHR BLARGHR KNIGHT FILE CORRUPT*
Yes. It is. Firaxis' sound file for the knight in particular seems to become corrupt over time. As far as I know, there is no quick fix for it.

Mod-y Questions:
*OH SNAP! CIVEDIT CRASHED AND I LOST IT ALL!*
CivEdit creates a temporary file in the "temp" folder at the start of each session which exists until that instance of CivEdit is closed normally. Check the newest file in that folder; maybe you didn't lose it all!

*OH SNAP! I SAVED MY FILE BUT IT'S NOT THERE!*
You might think that saving your .biq is a sure-fire way to avoid losing all your work. You'd be wrong. Civedit is a fickle little gimboid of a program from time to time, so its best to save frequently in at least 2 different files, so you can revert to the other one if something goes horribly wrong.

*BLARGHR CORRUPTION*
There are several settings which deal with corruption, and they're not all in one place.
In CivEdit, look under "World Sizes" to find the Optimal Number of Cities setting, which you can use to increase or decrease the number of cities one can build on any given map size before major civ-wide corruption hits take place.
Under "Difficulty Level", you can set the percentage of corruption (as compared to the regular, epic game) that is used for each difficulty level in your mod or scenario.
The other way to tweak corruption (aside from corruption-reducing citizens and improvements) in a scenario or mod is through Government-specific corruption levels, which you should be familiar enough with. In a remarkable display of silliness and apparent insanity, Firaxis has hidden away these government-specific corruption levels under the "Governments" tab. (note that the "NONE" setting does not eliminate corruption, and is indeed rather screwy. Don't use it.)

*WATER IMPROVEMENTS/WORKERS ETC. ETC.*
No. It will work, but the AI can't use them, and it will look all kinds of weird.

*WHAT ABOUT WALLS?*
The concensus on walls seems to be that the "walled city" graphics will be used when an improvement is made which has a bombard defense, or one which matches exactly the base "City" defense (50% defense, 8 bombard defense, when a town grows to city level). Additional combat percent bonuses (as evidenced by the Civil Defense Improvement) can be built, but only the largest bonus will be used for any one city.

*HOW DOES AI USE UNIT STRATEGIES?*
In Civ3Edit, there are AI flags for different strategies which only become 'ungreyed' when appropriate orders have been made available. When there is more than one strategy checked, the AI will RANDOMLY CHOOSE one of the checked strategies for every unit which has more than one strategy, and will use this for the entire game. It is possible in rare occasions for the AI to use a unit for something other than its given strategy. On a related note...

*CAN AI USE MILITARY WORKERS LIKE LEGIONS AND CRUSADERS?*
No. The AI cannot use units with only one or a few 'terraforming' orders effectively, because the Terraform strategy flag requires all terraforming orders to be checked. The AI will also usually not be able to use 'multi-purpose' units effectively, e.g. if you wanted a unit which doubled as both a worker and an offensive attacker in a pinch, the AI would not use it in the way you'd want it to. Note that the AI is also picky with its Kings, and in scenarios such as the Medieval Japan Conquest, where the "King" unit is a powerful upgradable 'hero', it will simply hide its King in a city to waste away.

...One last tip for Modders/Scenario-Makers: Before releasing it, test it.
Make a mini-scenario, and place EVERY unit in the mod under the control of a player civilization, as well as a city with all buildings. When you load it, it functions as a catch-all for any inconsistencies in unit naming, pediaicons, missing or misnamed graphics, et cetera ad infinitum. Then, open the civilopedia index, and scroll all the way down. This will save you and the testers a bit of time and trouble. There might be a utility or two that does that stuff for you, but what fun is that?

good to know...I had started on it a month ago but left it undone because I didn't think it was helpful enough.
Then, in between then and now, I had several people PM me asking me how to do the things I had started making my guide for.
Also: I didn't mention it, but experienced modders who have seen repeat questions, feel free to PM me with questions and answers that should be added to Post 3, or just post them here and I'll integrate them into Post 3.

Technically speaking, I figured out a good bit in between when I was added to the beta team and now...There hasn't been much activity on CDG for Mystara; I haven't been playing with the mod as much as I was before, but I've just finished an Alpha Centauri cycle (with a pathetic best score of 608%), so I may get around to doing some buildingslarge/small graphics for the Space Race components...I have this awful tendency to start things or come up with ideas for things, and then abandon or forget them.

Which reminds me, to new modders reading this thread: The best way to fail at modding is to start doing something new before your project is in releasable state.

Because I've done a variety of different things, I've decided that the best place to place a full library o' stuff is in this forum. Fortunately, I'm clever enough not to jumble things up with an entire new thread, so I've just set a library in...this thread. Do not respond to this post. If you want to comment on stuff I've done, do it in individual threads. Again, do NOT comment on this post.

A Quick Guide on Well-Known Mods and Scenarios Worth Playing (catch: my opinion.)

Epic Mods (full 4 eras, 4000 BC to Post-2000 AD)
Rhye's of Civilization-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=111977
-This one has a World Map scenario with accurate placement and very much historical development, which occurs naturally, with the exception of the player civ, which benefits (or suffers...) from the decisions of the human at the controls.
-It ALSO comes with a random map variation which is just as fun.
-This adds a ton of units, improvements, graphics, concepts, et cetera, and is one of what appear to be the two most 'popular' mods, the second one being...

Rise and Rule-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=100144
-The appeal in this mod comes in flooding; it contains an overwhelming number of added units, improvements, techs, and the like, although there is comparatively little variety between different civs. Its not a personal favorite, but it is certainly worth playing through.

Historical Mods (Pre-(Civ)Modern Scenarios and Mods)
Colonize! Beta-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=112368
-I made this, so I'm putting it here first, even though it doesn't really fit the bill for "big mod worth playing". This is an Age of Exploration mod designed for play on pre-made maps; while it is not buggy, it is marginally incomplete, so if the odd lack of a 'description' page in the civilopedia or the occasional out-of-place tiny leaderhead pesters you, you may wish to avoid this. Check the first post in its thread for a briefing on what you can expect from the mod, eh?

The Ancient Mediterranean-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=23420
-This is an excellent mod with a great deal of variety between different civs which can operate on any of several mediterranean themed scenario maps with accurate placement or on a random map. Everything is completely revamped to fit the atmosphere of the time period.

The Rood and the Dragon-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=105759
-A rather good scenario focusing on the Anglo-Saxon incursion into the British Isles; very reminiscent of Firaxis Conquests, but with more character and more extensive use of modding tools.

Modern Mods
Looking for anything made exclusively for the 1900-2005 period? You're in luck. At any given time, the front page in the Completed Scenarios sub-forum has about 20 of these, most of them World War 2. I won't recommend any specifically, because theres so darn many. Just pick one.

There are currently 3 interesting Sci-Fi mods in the works of exceptional note (in my opinion...and there could be some I'm unawares about...)
They are:
Warhammer 40,000
Mars
My own Colonize! 2 mod
-So, if you're a scifi fan, you'll have to wait for a while. All three of these mods are slated to be done before the release of Civ 4, but you know how that goes.

Fantasy Mods
Master of Myrror-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=79607
-Loosely based on the classic civ-style game Master of Magic, rather fun to play; somewhat resource-and-combat oriented.

Warhammer-http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=66060
-Styled around the Warhammer mythos, with lots of civ diversity and great looking units.

D&D Mystara- This one is still in the works, and I am beta-testing for it. It should be out some time May 2005.

Note to modders: Don't ask me to add your mod or scenario to my list. For that matter, don't ask me to remove your mod or scenario from my list, either. This is purely for the sake of people who are overwhelmed by the availability of mods and need a quick reference card briefing.

I'm sorry if I'm breaking some posting taboo here, but I frankly can't follow this. I do what you say, but when you say "Now go to Dialogs -> Indexed Palette"....there is no "indexed palette." Do you mean "Palettes?" If so, which do I choose? Maybe I'm using a different version...I downloaded the GIMP installer today, August 14. Does this have different manu options?

Rolly-poly fishheads are never seen drinking cappucino in Italian restaurants
with oriental women....yeah.

Yes, I have the same problem. I assume you mean Palettes and when I open it, that last is not 253 or 254 or whatever. They are many that have a number 256 in fact.

Also, I cannot seem to find the plus sign for adding. Although there is an arrow pointing left and that lets me add palettes. Now, I can find the "change foreground and background" stuff, but don't see how that relates to the palettes. Usually the bottom one is 216 and I can't change it.

Hi, I have had the same problem with my gimp (version 2.2), and after looking around a bit I discovered that indexed palette has been changed to colormap. It is still under the dialogs menu though.

But one thing that confuses me is that when I access the palette I indexed, it doesn&#180;t have 254 colors, but rather 249. So what with that?

Really, what I need to do is to change the large and small buildings files in my civ vanilla so that they appear in the game without the magenta background. Anyone have any ideas as to how I do this?
Thanks!

Okay, I have tried this over and over, and I am not getting it. I have read various tutorials as well, but I can't get it. As I said above, it worked reat the first time and never again...what gives? This tutorial is really well written, however something is not the same on my GIMP 2.2 and it is not working. Here is the part that I have difficulty with.

GRM7584 said:

Now you have an interesting little dialog, don't you? Use that top option that says "Generate optimum palette". That option is your friend. Change the number of colors to 254, because we are going to add the last two transparent colors in manually. Open up the Indexed Palette, which I already explained how to do, and click on the last entry once. The entry number will be 253...thats because the first entry is 0. For any Civ3 .pcx, you want that last number to be 255, because that means you have 256 colors total. Right? Right. Now, find the "Plus Sign" button, because that is what adds entries to your indexed palette. Adding entries doesn't change the existing image, but lets you use the added entries as colors; keep in mind that an indexed image can ONLY use colors in its palette. So, you must now add entries until the last one is numbered "255". Do so. Now, double click on that last entry, and change the color to Magenta...ff00ff...if it isn't already. We did this because the BACKGROUND of the image is going to be Magenta, and we want that transparent.

Click to expand...

What gets me is that I do not get the last palette listed to be 253 or anything lke that. They are 216 usually. I can't find any "plus sign" but I did find a button that will let me add a palette, however it does not appear last on the list. The double click part is not ending up with what is described either.

Is there something else I need to do, or can someone help me out, maybe on MSN some day or something. I would really like to lick this problem.

I think you are in the wrong palette. So after you index your palette per the instructions, go to the dialogs menu. From there, you should click on colormap. This is what gimp 2.2 calls the indexed palette. From there you should be able to add the colors.
Unfortunately, that is as far as I have got. As I wrote above, my problem is that there are only 249 colors, rather than 254. I still can´t get it to work, but I will try again after the World Cup, when I have more time.

You want the Colormap box, not Palettes. They're both in the Dialogs menu. If there are fewer colors, ust keep adding more indices until there are 256. The + button is at the bottom of the Colormap dialog box.

Thanks for the info on adding colors. So should the number of the last color be 255 like it says in the guide?
Also, when it says to change the original magenta and green to any color at all, does it really not matter at all what color you change them to?

Yes, the last number should be 255. You can actually use any color that doesn't appear in the image (if it does, it will be transparent) but magenta and green are what Firaxis used and are now the accepted standard.

edit: nevermind that last part, I misread your post. But yes, you can use any color. I usually use black for no particular reason.